Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-10-08

A1BAeA III luc EOOm. 1EkneW eX0cly W0efe
everything vas. I first bolted the door Of
the staircase. That would secure me
plenty of time for escape, should Joshua
be reused. Then I took the poker and
pr1sed up the hearthstone cautiously.
Feeling in the dark, I discovered one, two,
three-eight bags, all tied up, and all
containing money. Now I was quite GER
tain, when l laid my hands upon those
bags, that I was not only going to take
some of Joshua's money, but all of it.
He kept his whole store-al his savings
in that hiding place. I@ought, at this
length Of time, to feel ashamed at the
baseness of my revenge-but I cannot.
The wrong was so bitter, the villainy was
so unutterable, that I have only to think
Of my wi feelings that night, and I
justify myself at once. 1t was delightful
to me to feel that I was taking the whole
OF his money. I hoped that its loss would
ruin him. When the bags were oil out, I
carefully put back the hearthstone.
Eight bags-there. were no more. I
laid them altogether on the table, felt in
the drawer for the ball. Of string which
the practical mind Of Joshua made him
always keep there, and tied them all to-
gether, and attached about three yards of
string by which to hang them in their
place.
There must have been a good sum of
money in the whole, because the bags
were pretty heavy to carry. l dropped
them cautiously out of window, crept out
side myself and carried away the bags.
The great undershot wheel Of the mill
occupied, as we know already, one end
Of the building which formed both mill
and cottage. It stood there under o
broad, slipping penthouse Of heavy thatch
which made It dark in the brightest day.
Once, long before, when the wheel was
stopped for some repairs, I held it in its
place, by q wooden spoke and amused
myself By climbing to. the toptunder this
projecting root. It was a girls trick,
and rather a dangerous one. I got no
good, not even the nest which I expected
to find; but l saw hidden away in the
darkness q great hook stuck in the wall.
What 1t was originally placed there for
l do not know, but it was so high up,
SO hidden by the wheel and the black
shadows Of the roof, that it was quite
invisible from below. That was the place
for my bags First I succeeded by tying
a spoke of the wheel to one of the beams
in the wood work in keeping the wheel,
over which the water was no longer rum
ming, motionless while I climbed up.
Then I mounted the wheel, which was
nov like q ladder, and clambered up
three or four Of the undershot buckets
till ! could reach the wall close under the
roof. Here I felt about in the darkness
till l found the hook, and then tying the
end OF tho string securely to 1t I lowered
the bags slowly into the black water be-
meath. l heard above the noise of the
fo11iro vvotor thu oolooh - A.. 49,. r
felt them touch the bottom, and then with
JOshua's rage when he should find out
his loss, I cautiously descended from the
perilous perch, united the spoke and con-
sidered what to do next.
The first temptation-a childish one
was to hurl stones at his bedroom win
dow, so as to awaken him and bring him
down, but l abandoned that idea, as an
other and q more brilliant one occurred
to me.
Joshua had sold twenty kegs out of tho
cargo to Mr.. Mallock, the justice of the
peace. No doubt he had arranged, or was
arranging, for the sale of all tho rest. No
doubt, too, he intended adding the pro-
cecds Of this transaction to the pile-aha!
the pile beneath the hearthstonc.
elset off to run almost the whole Of the
way back to Rousdon, under the impulse
Of this new idea, which filed my mind.
1t was about II O'Clock, as 1 should Judge.
1t took me nearly an hour before l got to
Rousdon farm. I had business to do, and
there would be no thought Of bed for me
that night. But first l wcnt into the
house, found some supper, and procured
certain handy tools necessary for my pur-
pose.
Had thine to do it? 1t had taken nearly
four hours to remove the cargo of the
Dancing Polly from the boat to the hiding
place; could I do what l proposed in six?
would try.
There certainly was no stronger girl
than myself along the whole shore. The
life l had led in the open air-the rowing,
sailing and fishing; the gardening, the
rambles and climbs among the crags Of the
Holmbush fields and Pinhay point; the
sea bathing, the generous but simple dict
all these, added to physique to which
dame nature had been generous, made me
active and muscular above the average
even of young women living like myself.
Yet it was a heavy task which I proposed
to effect.
1t was nothing less than to carry every
single key down to the sea shore, turn out
the contents, fill them with sea water and
carry them back again. Fifty kegs at
least. Two hundred journeys up and
down that steep cliff, each time with q
weighty burden. But the thought Of
Joshua's CONSERVATION when he should
discover 1t gave me courage.
When l had got oil but six or seven
down the cliff another thought struck me.
There were the two kegs for my inform
ont -1ohn Raar " ,rn,,1I ,,o$ 1o fo;,<
give him sea water, after the service he
had done. There was also the poor old
rector. What would he do without his
brandy? and unless I provided for him, he
would get one till Dan and the boys
came home again. So I removed the last
six, and carried them away to q place
where l was pretty certain Joshua would
not think Of looking for them. And then
I proceeded to the next part of my task.
The kegs were now all in q row upon
the beach, lying on their sides. I went
from one.to the other, and with my ham,
mer and chisel forced out the bung from
every one. In a few minutes the smooth
water of the little bay was salt water
brandy grog, rather weak, and the kegs
were empty.
To fill them again quickly was more diff
flcult. I had to take of shoes and stock
ings, tuck up skirts, and wade in the
water, carrying each keg separately. 1t
was now growing late. I must have been
ct work five hours, and yet the kegs had
all to be carried back.
Well, it was done at length. The day
was breaking as the last keg was laid in
its place, and the brambles pulled together
to hide them. The tide had come up in
the bay, and washed away all the traces
Of the brandy which had been split so
freely on the stones. I sat down and
tried to think soberly what I had done.